The United States is not a nation like other nations, and it never has been. In July 1776, thirteen separate states, home to three million people with no common ancestry or identity, stretching along a narrow coastal strip between the Atlantic and the Appalachians, declared their independence as the United States. Could they form a common identity and survive? Today, with more than 350 million people drawn from all over the world, spanning the North American continent, we ask even more what holds us together? Gordon Wood, the premier historian of the American founding, author of The Creation of the American Republic, The Idea of America, Power and Liberty, Revolutionary Characters, and The Purpose of the Past, joins us to talk about this question, which he also addressed in his 2025 talk in accepting the Irving Kristol Award at the American Enterprise Insttitute. Gordon Wood was the guest on our first podcast in 2020; he came back for our 100 th episode in 2022; he returned in 2024 for our 200 th episode. Now he joins us on our 300 th episode, as we prepare to mark the 250 th anniversary of American Independence, and to help us answer the eternal questions, What is an American? What holds us together?

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Animals were critical to the War for Independence, both as livestock to feed the armies and navies, and as draft animals to pull cannon and provisions. Dogs and other animals served as mascots and companions, and insects spread diseases that upset the most careful military plans. While historians have looked at problems of supply and transportation for the armies at war, none has looked at the impact of animals on the War, or the War on animals. David Hsuing, an environmental historian and Charles and Shirley Knox Professor of History at Juniata College, tells us about the many roles of animals in shaping the War and its outcome, focusing on the siege of Boston.

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Mary Dalley's boarding house in Philadelphia is where history happened! In the early days of the Revoluiton it was called "Liberty Hall," and after 1787 it was "Constitution House." Gouverneur Morris lived here, had his law office here, and probably wrote the Constitution at Miss Dalley's Boarding House. Gathered around Miss Dalley's table at different times were fifteen signers of the Declaration of Independence, 12 signers of the Constitution, future governors, legislators, the Baron von Steuben, the Marquis de Lafayette, and George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison.

Adam Levinson, creator of the legal history blog Statutes and Stories, and public historian Tim Schantz have led a campaign to mark the site of Miss Dalley's boarding house, once known as Constitution House. Telling its history “from the boarding house out,” they show how the house reveals the relationships, and political culture that helped sustain the cause of independence in the streets of Philadelphia.

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